


Armitage Hux and the Knights of REN

by Kylo_is_my_bad_bae



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Astral Projection, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Mind Manipulation, Original Character(s), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Physical Abuse, Telekinesis, Telepathic Bond, pyrokinesis
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-15
Updated: 2018-07-15
Packaged: 2019-06-11 01:41:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15304629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kylo_is_my_bad_bae/pseuds/Kylo_is_my_bad_bae
Summary: Kylo, aka Experiment KY-10, has only ever known the Institute for the Research of Extrasensory Neurology, otherwise known as REN. He and the others in the Knights Program were created by RENs director, Brendol Hux, to bring about a new world order. It’s only natural that Brendol’s son, Armitage, should follow in his father’s footsteps. He just wanted a job, but soon he finds himself in a decades long secret war that could determine the fate of the human race as we know it.





	Armitage Hux and the Knights of REN

**Author's Note:**

> I haven’t written in forever, but I’ve had this AU in my head for ages and I finally decided to try and write something for it. It’s inspired by Stranger Things, Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment, The Shape of Water, The Uglies trilogy (Specials in particular), Maze Runner, the Rats of NIMH, and the like.

Some people welcome dreams.

 

They seek an escape from reality, a way to sink into a fantasy world of your mind’s own creation.

 

Kylo was not one of those people. 

 

While his fellow knights slept in their cages he sat propped up against the wall, trying to avoid the urge to sleep by staring at the blinking lights on one of the many scientific instruments that were affixed to the walls. This particular one was in the cage directly across from him, and was designed to keep Nyx from teleporting out of it. Kylo didn’t quite understand how it worked, only that it had something to do with radio waves and frequencies. Nyx stirred on her cot, as if she could sense Kylo thinking about her. She probably could; even while unconscious the knights were connected in mind and soul.

 

For example he could tell that Kade, in the cage to the left of him, was in the middle of a calming dream about nature. A mountain towering over the horizon, the wind rustling the grass, the sun reflecting across a lake. Kylo smiled. Kade was the closest to him in age, and was always the most grounded of the knights. Even though his abilities were more telekinetic than psychic, he could calm Kylo’s turbulent emotions better than anyone. To his right, Zan was dreaming about fire. Raging, burning, screaming, and the sound of Zan laughing maniacally. Zan’s love of fire and destruction was almost concerning, but all of the knights were pretty messed up so Kylo had decided it didn’t really matter quite a long time ago. Plus Zan could start fires with their mind; you can’t really stop a pyromaniac when they have access to flames 24/7. Finally, next to Nyx, there was Lola, who lay tossing and turning. 

 

Lola was the youngest, only 19, and they all felt very protective of her. As such, Kylo took it upon himself to try and ease her out of the nightmare she was clearly having. He closed his eyes and reached out with his mind, gently slipping into hers. Suddenly he was in a dark forest. It was nighttime, but there was no moon, and the stars seemed to be dying in flames that rained down onto the earth. It was cold, yet slightly damp. His breath fogged up in front of him, as smelled the decaying vegetation around him. Smoke rose in the distance, and howls and screams of terror could be heard. 

 

_ “You should be sleeping, Kylo.” _

 

Kylo whirled around, and found himself looking down at Lola. Out of all of the knights, Lola was the only one who could project herself onto the astral plane. This gave her control over dreams, among other things. 

 

_ “Why do you do this to yourself,”  _ he thought,  _ “You can change your dreams to whatever you want them to be. Why suffer night after night?” _

 

_ “Because they’re not just dreams,”  _ she replied, shaking her head,  _ “They’re premonitions. I know it.” _

 

Kylo glanced over his shoulder as a giant wolf spewing fire from its mouth and eyes ran past, burning a fleeing shadow figure who screamed in terror.  _ “I don’t think we’re ever going to encounter fire-breathing wolves, Lola”  _ he noted pointedly.

 

Lola sighed, exasperated.  _ “They’re not literal dreams Kylo. They represent something. I’ve had this same dream multiple times over the past few months. I need to know what it’s trying to tell me. At least I don’t run from my dreams-” _

 

Kylo was suddenly jerked back into the real world, as a siren began to blare and lights flashed. Morning had begun at REN.

 

………

 

“Subject B02 is incapacitated.”

 

Kylo panted as sweat dripped down his face, arm outstretched towards the unlucky, and unconscious, test subject in front of him. His days at REN consisted mostly of scientists running various tests on him and his abilities, as well as combat training. He had an uncanny talent for breaking into people’s minds; he could read thoughts, memories, and cause a great deal of pain if he wanted to. None of the REN scientists were willing to volunteer to be practice dummies anymore, so Dr. Peavey had taken to bringing in random people to have their minds torn apart for science. Kylo assumed that they weren’t here willingly, but he didn’t really care. Director Snoke had told him that they deserved what they got, and that was good enough for him.

 

He watched as two scientists in white lab coats dragged the unconscious man from the chair he was strapped into and take him out of the room. The sterile, white floor of the room now had scattered drops of blood on it, from both Kylo and his victim’s noses. Overexerting his powers always made his nose bleed, sometimes the blood vessels in his eyes even broke, but he welcomed the pain; it made him focused.

 

“Experiment KY-10, the test is complete. You may proceed to your allotted meal time.”

 

Kylo rolled his eyes as he wiped the blood from his face with the back of his hand, eyeing the experiment ID tattoo on his inner right wrist. The names he and the Knights used were merely pronunciations of their letter-number designations;  it was more convenient to use the “name” versions. And, though Kylo would never admit this, it made them feel more human. Exactly the opposite of how they should feel.

 

He smirked when the two scientists outside the room flinched a little when they saw him come out. They were right to fear him, because they were mere humans; he was something greater. Unlike them, he was created with a purpose: to bring order to the world. That was the goal, the purpose of his existence. To carry on what his grandfather started.

 

As he approached the dining area, he heard Zan yell “Ky!!” from across the room. They had soot all over their face and hands, and their hair looked freshly singed. “What did Dr. Unamo have you burn now?” Kylo asked with a smirk. Whenever Zan was this talkative it meant they had done something particularly destructive.

 

“A freaking helicopter!!” Zan yelled, abruptly jumping up and slamming their hands on the table. “They took me out to the range to test my fireballs and then Unamo said ‘we should have ZN-48 attempt to take out aerial targets’ and at first it was just the smaller drones and stuff but then she asked Mitaka to get one of the helicopter drones and he’s too spineless to say no so he did and I blew it out of the freaking sky!!”

 

Kylo snorted, which was as close as he ever got to genuinely laughing. It was nice to hear Zan say more than one word answers. They were usually pretty silent and unassuming, unless they were extremely excited or angry.  _ Not unlike a fire, _ Kylo mused. 

 

Suddenly there was a puff of black, wispy mist and Nyx was seated in the chair next to him. “Have I got some gossip for you!” Nyx said, grinning mischievously. 

 

“Nyx, you’ve got to stop shadow walking into classified areas!” Kade whispered harshly as he and Lola also sat down. Besides teleporting and creating shadow illusions, Nyx had the ability to create a shadow figure and pilot it with her mind, allowing her to remotely observe other places, similar to Lola’s dream walking and astral projection. Nyx had a habit of eavesdropping, so all of the offices and off-limit rooms had the same radio wave frequency emitters that her cage had to prevent her from entering via a cloud of black mist. Unknown to REN, this did nothing to stop Nyx’s shadow walking ability. The other knights, particularly Kade, were afraid that their handlers would find out and punish Nyx just like they did when they found out she was teleporting, or worse. “ _ An experiment is an asset, until they become a threat to their creator”  _ was the REN way of letting them know that, should they step out of line too much, they are expendable. 

 

“I’m careful Kade! And besides, Kylo’s going to want to hear this!” 

 

“Hear what?” Kylo asked, frowning. He didn’t exactly like Nyx putting herself at risk, but he knew that the information she brought back was often valuable. It’s how they were able to prepare themselves for the harsher tests and experiments that the REN scientists came up with. 

 

“ _ It’s about Brendol, _ ” Nyx whispered in their minds, leaning in towards the group. Kylo’s gaze hardened. Brendol Hux was the director of the REN facility, second only to Snoke. All of the scientists and employees of REN were told to view the knights as they would view a pack of wolves; they might look like the family dog, they might be capable of learning a few commands, but turn your back or get complacent and they’ll attack. Brendol took this philosophy to another level. He saw them as mere tools for his own gain. He attempted to beat any feelings of individuality or autonomy out of the knights, but was never able to completely turn them into mindless slaves, and made his hatred of this fact clear. And he hated Kylo most of all. 

 

_ “He’s bringing in a new employee to shadow Phasma, and guess what?”  _ Nyx said, grinning maliciously. _ “It’s his son.” _

**Author's Note:**

> The titles of the story and this chapter were inspired by “Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH” :-)
> 
> Here’s some random tidbits about this chapter/fic in general:
> 
> -Nyx is an OC that I’ve developed/redeveloped for some time now. I always associated her with the ability to manipulate shadows/light, and I really wanted to have her teleport kind of like Nightcrawler in Marvel but it never fit with canon. So I added her here :-)
> 
> -Zan is non-binary. I’ve never written a non-binary character before and I am not non-binary myself so feedback is welcome. Zan wasn’t originally non-binary in my outline so if I accidentally use a pronoun other than “they” let me know and I’ll fix it. 
> 
> -I have an extremely lengthy backstory for how the original trilogy, and even prequel trilogy, play into this AU. I’m not entirely sure if I’ll end up using all of it, though.
> 
> Anyways thanks for reading! I hope you like it :-)


End file.
